Audio recording 8 peoples at same time ? (low budget)

A

Anaking

New member
Hello guys, first of all excuse my awful English. So I've been working on Talk-Show with 8 peoples in quite room,but the problem is I really cant figure out how to record them on low budget(200$). I got few dumb ideas and please advice me.
Here is the venue plan. http://imgur.com/JqNj1Cn

  • Plan A: I buy cheap chinese audio mixer with 8 input ( http://imgur.com/a/dK5zF ) and buy 8+ lavelier microphones and connect it through 1/4 inch jack. Overall for only 600yuan!(100$) It has pretty decent review. I guess I have to record the audio through 3.5mm connected to computer. (I have ableton live)

  • Plan B: Buy Behringer Q802 USB thingy .Buy 2 omnidirectional microphones and hang it from ceilings?, that is not VISIBLE in the video shoot. I have no extra hands so theres no sound guy. And I dont intend to get sound guy, just want some stationary mics.

  • Plan C: Buy 8 iphone friendly lav-mic's and find cheap or free 7 iphones lol....

  • Plan D: Buy Tascam DR40 4(3track) digital recorder and put 1 shotgun mic on top of camera, 1 omni camera from ceilings?
Any idea is welcome guys, and thanks.
 
You said nothing about the acoustics of the room. But I would bet that the room is very reflective and NOT suitable for any kind of distant-microphone technique.
My first choice would be the 8-input mixer and 8 clip-on microphones. But microphones so very cheap won't be very good, and mixing that will be a disaster.
 
oh sorry. The red thing behind is curtain, and not so reflective room.
Yeah I afraid thats true, but in time I want to buy more official sound-recording equipments.
I respect sound quality and really want to get atleast decent sound with low budget...

Thanks Richard.

Also how would this will work?
 
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That Mackie mixer would probably work as well as any other small, inexpensive mixer.
Of course, it has only two microphone inputs, so you can use it with no more than 2 microphones.
 
I thought I could plug in 1/4 mic's (lav-mic) into them(3-8th line) and record everything at same time.
 
Is this a scripted piece, does everybody talk at once, do all 8 need to me mic'd at the same time?

Ah, I see this is a talk show. I would ask for a higher working budget.
 
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You need a mixer that has 8 microphone inputs, that Make has a few stereo line inputs, the channels marked as 5/6 are stereo line.
 
Anaking said:
...the problem is I really cant figure out how to record them on low budget(200$).
Click to expand...

I feel your pain. I can't figure out how to do it for that tiny budget either. $200 USD doesn't buy you much in the way of audio equipment, and to record eight people in a semicircle like that, it's going to take a whole lot more money to get a reasonable result.

The thing is, if the audio for a talk show is difficult to understand, no one will watch it. The audio for a talk show is way more important than the video. The audio is what puts the "talk" into "talk show".
 
Anaking said:
I thought I could plug in 1/4 mic's (lav-mic) into them(3-8th line) and record everything at same time.
Click to expand...
"Mic" and "line" refer to signal levels, not just connector type. A mic signal is a small fraction of the level of a line signal and will be totally inaudible if plugged into a line input, even if the connectors are the same so you can do so.
 
David W. Jones said:
Ah, I see this is a talk show. I would ask for a higher working budget.
Click to expand...
Yeah I asked higher budget but my wallet said NO haha.

Greg_E said:
You need a mixer that has 8 microphone inputs, that Make has a few stereo line inputs, the channels marked as 5/6 are stereo line.
Click to expand...
Okay I guess my best plan would be roll with this chinese stuff and hope the good review is true? http://imgur.com/a/dK5zF


Bruce Watson said:
I feel your pain. I can't figure out how to do it for that tiny budget either. $200 USD doesn't buy you much in the way of audio equipment, and to record eight people in a semicircle like that, it's going to take a whole lot more money to get a reasonable result.

The thing is, if the audio for a talk show is difficult to understand, no one will watch it. The audio for a talk show is way more important than the video. The audio is what puts the "talk" into "talk show".
Click to expand...

yeah Im putting audio in priority. But at the same time I dont wanna start some poor amateur looking show.

Steve House said:
"Mic" and "line" refer to signal levels, not just connector type. A mic signal is a small fraction of the level of a line signal and will be totally inaudible if plugged into a line input, even if the connectors are the same so you can do so.
Click to expand...

Oh... I should become friends with someone has better understanding of audio than me... thanks

PS: thanks guys, love the community. I asked those questions lots of other place but no answer at all. Thanks again.
 
If it really works, that mixer seems to be exactly what you need. Looks like it has a USB connection too, so you might be able to record all 8 tracks as isolated tracks on a computer, and record the mix on the camera(s) as well as feed it out to stream/transmission.

All you need now are 8 lavaliere microphones and some cables.
 
Greg_E said:
If it really works, that mixer seems to be exactly what you need. Looks like it has a USB connection too, so you might be able to record all 8 tracks as isolated tracks on a computer, and record the mix on the camera(s) as well as feed it out to stream/transmission.

All you need now are 8 lavaliere microphones and some cables.
Click to expand...

I afraid that USB is just mp3 player, not output. Still if it can record decently it worths it IMO.
 
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